During the Operation Southern Breeze, for the control of the embargo issued by the United Nations against Iraq, in the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and at Red Sea, the frigate F910 WIELINGEN challenged and identified 1011 merchant vessels and in 13 boarded (boarding) which were suspect.

Boarding Procédure : The 'WIELINGEN' locates a suspect merchant vessel (or receives the instruction to hail one of them, located by other allied ships), the F910 bridge prevents by radio operator the captain of the suspect ship to reduce its speed, to steer such course, to prepare the ship’s log, to put the pilot scale and to gather the crew at a precise place of the ship. The sixteen members of the "boarding TEAM" embark, armed with UZI machine-guns and GP 9mm guns , on board of 2 Zodiacs which leave towards the suspect ship and accost it, the first "visitors" go up on board by climbing the scale of pilot laid out with side of the ship whereas three sailors remain in the two zodiadiacs in radio contact with the other members of the TEAM and with the F910 bridge. One of the two officers, assisted by two men, starts the checking of the documents: ship’s company list, registry documents, captain’s log,… Whereas the second officer, his assistant and four duets excavate the ship while remaining, permanently, in radio contact between them and the WIELINGEN's bridge, that can last several hours... and if the boarding TEAM does not find anything abnormal, the ship is declared "cleared vessel" and it is authorized to continue on its road.
In the event of embargo infringement, the MIF (Multinational Interception Forces) is informed. Subsequently, an allied warship will be assigned to escort the merchant ship towards a designated port for a thorough inspection.

BOARDING TEAM Composition (16 members)

Teams

Rank and Name

Weapon + equipement

Location and action

.
C/S A.
.

..LTZ Soetemans
1MR VanMassenhove
MAT Ransy

..GP (9mm).UZI + radio .UZI + res. batt.

.Bridge : .Coordination and checking of the documents of the ship..Radio contact with F910 and team B..Security (body guard).

.
C/S B.

...VTZ Van Eycken
1MC Van Overstaeten

..GP + radio.UZI + res. batt.

.Scale of pilot (midship) :.Coordination of the excavation ship / radio contact with the.search teams and the zodiacs.

C/S S1.

2MR Derde
1MT Blaise

.UZI + radio .UZI + res. batt.

.Before ship : visit and search.

C/S S2.

MTR Demyttenaere
1MT Loose

.UZI + radio .UZI + res. batt.

.Engine room : visit and search.

C/S S3.

2MR Deryck
1MT Van den Broele

.UZI + radio .UZI + res. batt.

.Back of the ship : visit and search.

C/S S4.

2MR Kinali
1MT Olivier. O.

.UZI + radio .UZI + res. batt.

.Radio room : monitoring of crew and search.

Substitutes

1MT Bureau, 1MT Dautel, MAT Gheys, MAT Dumoulin

Zodiac1

KMT Clyncke

.radio + batt.

.zodiac 1 : radio contact with F910 and the search teams.

Zodiac 2

2MR Demaesschalck
MAT Hansenne

.radio .batt.

.zodiac 2 : radio contact with F910 and the search teams.

(aboard the Wielingen) Teams for launching and recovering the zodiacs.